Name Douglas Parker | Education University of Utah | |
Books Revised Treatise Page on the Law of Wills: Including Probate, Will Contests, Evidence, Taxation, Conflicts, Estate Planning, Forms, and Statutes Relating to Wills | ||
Douglas H. Parker (born 1926) is a former law school professor. He began his law teaching career as a Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow (1952–53) at the University of Chicago Law School and later taught as a professor of law at the University of Colorado College of Law (1953–75) and the Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School (1975-1991).
Contents
- Early life and education
- Personal life
- Career
- Faculty Positions
- Visiting Faculty Positions
- Membership in professional and honorary associations
- Professional Activities and Community Service
- Books
- Articles
- References
Early life and education
Douglas H. Parker, the second of four children, was born in 1926 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to parents Casper Hugh Parker and Carrie Hansen.
Parker graduated from high school at the age of 16 and immediately enrolled at the University of Utah. During his second year at the university, Parker took the medical school admissions test and was accepted to medical school.
In 1944 during World War II, at age 18, Parker delayed entering medical school and enlisted in the Navy. Parker was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Base near Chicago where he served as a surgery technician (scrub nurse) passing instruments in the operating room in over 400 operations.
Upon the close of World War II, Parker returned to Salt Lake City and subsequently served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Eastern United States (1946–48). During his mission service, Parker served as a counselor in the mission presidency. Later in life (1977–80) he served as a bishop of a LDS ward in Provo, Utah.
After his church mission, Parker continued school at the University of Utah where he graduated with a B.A. in Political Science. He then entered law school at the University of Utah. At law school, Parker was a founding editor of the University of Utah Law Review and graduated first in his class.
Personal life
In 1950 Parker married Corene Cowan. They have seven children, four sons and three daughters, 36 grandchildren, and 23 great grandchildren. Three of Parker's sons have followed his footsteps and are lawyers.
Parker lives a physically active life and has run fifteen marathons, the last of which at age 66. He has worked-out at the gym for over 50 years. Parker also enjoys cross-country skiing, backpacking, hunting, and fishing.
Parker enjoys writing essays in which he engages in philosophical, religious, theological analysis, speculation, and criticism. He has produced over 200 such essays in four volumes:
Journeys of the Mind, 1985–2001
After Midnight Thoughts, 1989–91
A Wee Collection of Innocent Thoughts Experienced While Mowing the Lawn, 2002–03
Searching for the Obvious, 2004–06
Parker also enjoys writing free verse poetry and has written over 90 poems.
Career
In 1952 upon graduation from law school, Parker received a distinguished Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellowship at the University of Chicago Law School, a fellowship given to top law school graduates in the country. At Chicago, Parker taught courses in Legal Writing, Legal Research, and Legal Analysis.
In 1953, Parker accepted a faculty position at the University of Colorado College of Law. As a professor of law, he taught courses primarily involving client care-taking: civil procedure, wills and trusts, equitable remedies, damages, and legal ethics. While at Colorado, Parker and colleague William J. Bowe accepted an invitation to revise the multi-volume treatise Page on Wills, (a five-volume treatise of the United States' law on wills and decedents' estates) expanding it to eight volumes. Parker taught at the University of Colorado for 22 years.
In 1975, Parker accepted a faculty position at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School where he sought to expand his intellectual grasp of the province and function of law in teaching a variety of new subjects of a comparative law nature: Federal Indian law, Roman law, Jewish law, Jurisprudence (Legal Philosophy), Professional Responsibility (Legal Profession and Legal Ethics), and Conflicts of Laws.
In 1986, Parker was the first law professor to be awarded BYU’s Karl G. Maeser distinguished teaching award. He taught at BYU until 1991 when he retired. In recognition of Parker’s contributions to legal education, a former student established in Parker's honor the "Douglas H. Parker Award." The award is presented annually to the student who attains the highest grade in Jurisprudence or Federal Indian Law.
Following his retirement, Parker continued occasionally to teach at other law schools as a visiting professor. When teaching in China with his wife Corene (1975–76), he was awarded the Excellent Teacher Award by the Shandong Province Education Commission. He claimed the award should have been awarded to Corene.
Faculty Positions
Bigelow Teaching Fellowship, University of Chicago, 1952–53
Professor of Law, University of Colorado, 1953–75
Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, 1975–91
Visiting Faculty Positions
University of Utah College of Law, (American Indian Law), Summer 1979
University of Arizona School of Law, (CLEO-Legal Analysis & Writing), Summer 1980, 1987
University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law, (Wills & Trusts), Summer 1981
University of Alabama School of Law, (Professional Responsibility), Summer 1982
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Visiting Research Professor, 1983
University of New Mexico School of Law, (CLEO-Legal Analysis & Writing ), Summer 1985
Stetson University College of Law, Culverhouse Chair Professor of Law, (Federal Indian Law; Law and Religion)1994
Shandong Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, P.R. China, Certified Foreign Expert, (English reading, writing, listening, speaking to post-graduate doctors) 1995–96
Concordia International University Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia, (Roman Law), 1998
BYU Hawaii, (Jewish History, Tradition, and Law), Spring 2004
Membership in professional and honorary associations
International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (Honorary Membership)
International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
Institute of Judicial Administration
Institute of Jewish Law
The Jewish Law Association (Member of International Executive Committee, 1990–91)
Colorado Bar Association
Utah Bar Association
Order of the Coif
Phi Kappa Phi
Professional Activities and Community Service
Wrote questions for the California Bar Examination for ten years (Wills)
Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Committee, Colorado Bar Association (1955–57)
Former Legal Consultant to and Member of Technical Advisory Committee on Radiation Protection, Colorado Department of Public Health
Former Member, Junior College Study Committee of Board of Education, Boulder County RE-2 School District
Former Chairman, Arbitration Panel under Colorado Teacher Tenure Act
Former Member, Board of Directors, Colorado Continuing Legal Education, Inc.
Member, Statutory Revision Committee, Probate and Trust Law Section, Colorado Bar Association
Faculty Director and participating instructor, Fraud Investigator Conference (nine two-week national conferences, 1967–73, funded and sponsored by the United States Bureau of Employment Security, U.S. Dept. of Labor)
Faculty Director and participating instructor, Appeals Referees Conference (two two-week national conferences, 1971–72, funded and sponsored by the United States Bureau of Employment Security, U.S. Dept. of Labor)
Special Investigator (1972), Colorado Commission on Judicial Qualifications (to conduct investigation into charges of misconduct and to make recommendations concerning institution of formal discipline hearings against offending judges)
Faculty Member (1975) Annual Educational Conference, National College of Probate Judges
Former Member, Ethics Advisory Committee, Utah State Bar, 1983
Books
6646 pp.
American Law of Mining. Albany, N.Y.: Matthew Bender, 1960, Vol. 4 1-74.
reproduced for classroom use). 111 pp.
use). 300 pp.
Articles
Damages,” 28 Rocky Mountain Law Review 83-91 (1955).
Review 296-359 (1957).
Association of Women Deans and Counselors 198-202 (1961).
Sozialphilosophie 63 (1968).
Rights, Jay Stewart Publications, Inc., 1971, 257-262.
Continuing Legal Education in Colorado.
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania and London. This article was included with other essays and republished in the book Perspective in Mormon Ethics. Publisher Press, 1984, D. Hill, Editor.
Maintaining Professional Competence,” 1974 Utah Law Review 463-490, reprinted in 54 Michigan State Bar Journal 768-795 (1975).
United States law reviews and law journals, 1980–85), 7 The Jewish Law Annual, 255-302 (1988).
Government,” Cardozo Law Review 805-819 (1990).
Publishing Co., 1954, pp. 712. Reviewed in 8 Journal of Legal Education 257 (1954).
Published. 2 v., 1630 pp. Reviewed in 31 Rocky Mountain Law Review 119 (1958).
Foundation, 1960, 2 v. Reviewed in 33 Rocky Mountain Law Review 261 (1961).
St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1965, pp. xxvii, 388. Reviewed in 19 Journal of Legal Education 228 (1966).